Tektronix 453 Oscilloscope displaying power line interference

[OrangeZuchinni]

Interesting.

[ugotstyle]

You'll see this at almost any beach. Beach communities often have power line arcing due to the salts in the moist air.

[jstrunck]

Awful!

[aurora990]

I always listen to AM and shortwave radio and there are widespread areas within the city of high radio interference that happens during the summer days. the cause was the 30+ KV power lines that was making a soft buzzing noise where the power lines were hold by the pylons and in some cases can see an electric arc. I bought a radio antenna device that had boosted radio reception and it had eliminated most of the radio noise from arcing power lines.

[VREDFOX]

neat oscilloscope

[uploadJ]

Thanks; I like that old CRT-technology Model 453 scope by Tektronix ...

[desertbard]

Broadband over power line?

[uploadJ]

As it turned out, this was a case of bona fide powerline arcing; I tracked it down and have a vid of the arcing culprit (I think there is a link in the 'more info' section)! There is also a vid of the DF technique I used in where I used a portable shortwave receiver to track down the source which was over a mile away (the reason I tracked it down was 'cause it was tearing up the 80M ham band).

Thanks for the comment BTW.

[uploadJ]

Also - The arc can also be heard in the video of the pole with the arcing; a gap of about an inch across which an arc is struck makes pretty noticable audible buzzing noise and it is easy to locate within 50 feet!

[envisionelec]

Hmmm, I live on Patterson in Dayton and experienced some pretty terrible AM reception up until a primary wire down the street finally failed, got fixed and the problem completely cleared up. Small world if it was that one. ;)

[9020powrmax]

More than likely the interferance was caused by the lead wire on the primary fuse that disconnected from transformer and it was arcing? I seen one like that at night just a faint blue arcing up by transformer. No wonder everyones radios went bezerk within a half mile or more... Needless to say i had to call DP&L (Our power company).....